Samantha Who?: ABC Cancels Christina Applegate Sitcom, No Season Three

Published: May 18, 2009

Another casualty of the networks’ efforts to trim their expenses is the sophomore sitcom, Samantha Who?.

The ABC sitcom revolves around a nasty young woman (Christina Applegate) who is hit by a car. When she awakens from a coma, she’s developed amnesia and has even forgotten her terse personality. Samantha Who? also features the talents of Jennifer Esposito, Kevin Dunn, Melissa McCarthy, Tim Russ, Barry Watson, and Jean Smart.

Samantha debuted on October 15, 2007 and was given the plum position of following ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. With that lead-in, the first season averaged 11.8 million viewers. However, though the show’s ratings looked good on paper, the sitcom consistently lost a significant portion of Dancing’s large audience. Looking beyond that, ABC renewed Samantha for a second season.

For the start of its sophomore year, ABC once more gave the sitcom a cushy post-Dancing timeslot. Episodes averaged 10.76 million viewers. Once Dancing finished, the sitcom’s audience fell to 6.75 million.

Should Samantha Who? have been cancelled?

Then, the network moved Samantha to Thursday nights and things really fell apart. Without the benefit of a strong lead-in, Applegate and company attracted just 5.24 million viewers. Due to the poor numbers, ABC ended up pulling Samantha and In the Motherhood two weeks early.

Despite the faltering ratings, there have been ongoing discussions about keeping the show going for another season; likely because the show is co-produced by ABC’s in-house production company and because they still have seven unaired episodes.

Producers were asked to find a way to cut $500,000 in expenses from each episode. One possibility that was looked at was changing Samantha to a traditional multi-camera comedy, a format that takes less time and money to produce.

Things were looking good going into the weekend but ultimately it wasn’t possible to shave enough money from Samantha’s budget. ABC also has lots of new comedies in the making so finding a place for it on the schedule also became an issue. As a result, ABC has opted to cancel the series.

It was previously announced that Samantha reruns would begin airing on Friday, June 5th. Now that the show’s been cancelled, it’s presumed that the unaired episodes will run on Friday nights as well.

Okay, here’s another classic “fudge up” by ABC apart from “The Unusuals”. Pulling a Kevorkian on “Samantha Who”!! What the hell is going on with ABC? TNT, FX and USA, Please help us!!! We are dying out here!!!! We need these two shows back! Samantha’s story line is awesome and the comedy on there is great! All of hese people are so, so talented!! I am highly pissed!

wow. I am extremely disappointed with abc. This was my favorite show and I know many others loved it too. I can’t believe this. The show lost viewers because nobody would ever know when it was on! It would air regularly for a while and then all of a sudden disappear for a couple of weeks. It was frustrating. Samantha Who is what drew me to abc in the first place. I wish there was something I could do. BRING BACK SAMANTHA WHO!

Rats!!! I just got completely and totally hooked on this show via the internet. So much so that I rushed out and bought both seasons on DVD and have devoured them. It is my absolute favorite show and I will miss not having new episodes to view. I agree 100% with what others have hopes for…..that another station picks it up! Keeping my fingers crossed for that!

WOW! Thank God “Lost” is at its last season. The end of that show will be the end of me EVER watching anything else on ABC. It feels like ABC has ADHD and they just can’t leave great shows like “Eli Stone”, “Samantha Who?” and “Women’s Murder Club” alone. Other networks should pick these shows up and wipe ABCs noses with their huge ratings! Oh, damn…they already do!

Samantha Who was one of THE most entertaining shows. Sharply written and well cast, it should never have been sacrificed. It was guaranteed laughter when the rest of the world isn’t giving us much to laugh at. Admit it: You made a mistake!

I really like this show. I watch it online. We are a family of five, and like most people we know, we prefer to watch online. We rarely use our TVs anymore to actually watch TV; we watch TV on our laptops. When the TVs do get used, it is usually to watch TV or movies steaming from the internet, play games, or watch a DVD. We are not confined by the networks time schedule. We can watch, pause, rewind, add or remove subtitles and so on as we wish. We are in control of how, when, and what we watch; and we like it that way. So to just look at who is watching through the old boob tube is a mistake.

This really blows. I started watching in mid-season and I like the show a lot. I planned on watching season one online before the new season started. Guess I won’t have that opportunity. Wonder if there is a chance another network will pick it up.

I couldn’t believe it when I heard Samantha Who was cancelled. It was a much better show than a lot of the crappy shows that are on now on ABC. It was really funny and it kept me watching it every week. Hopefully it comes back.

One of the funniest and best shows on tv today. Makes me laugh and in this day and age we need it! Always a good escape to watch such a good family show. Let’s hope some other network has the balls and guts to pick up this wonderful show